Various publications, including patents, published applications, technical articles and scholarly articles are cited throughout the specification. Each of these cited publications is incorporated by reference herein, in its entirety and for all purposes.
Sewing is an ancient art, primarily used to join pieces of fabric or like materials together. Sewing may also be used to add designs onto (e.g., embroidery), or reinforce or add strength or rigidity to fabrics or like materials. Yarns or threads bridge pieces of materials together or form the design or reinforcing backbone in the materials.
Yarns or threads are placed via stitching, and stitching may be done by hand or by a machine. Various stitching techniques and patterns are available, depending on the particular application or the type of material.
The advent of the sewing machine introduced the lockstitch 101 (FIG. 1A), whereby two separate threads (or yarns), an upper thread 103 and lower thread 105, become intertwined (thread interlace point 107) by the coordination of the sewing needle, which delivers the upper thread into the material being sewn, and a secondary mechanism, typically a bobbin and bobbin driver, which provides the lower thread. The coordinated movement of the sewing needle and bobbin driver intertwines the upper and lower threads, which is known as a lockstitch, in the material being sewn.
Nearly any material that can be punctured with a sewing needle may be sewn. The materials may be woven, knitted, or non-woven. Historically, such materials included fabrics and textiles. In more recent times, materials have been expanded to include polymeric fabrics, as well as biotextiles and medical textiles. Biotextiles include implantable materials, including extracellular matrix scaffolds, prosthetic heart valves, synthetic skin, and other materials that include living tissue or materials derived from living tissue.
In some biotextiles, a reinforcing mesh may be sewn into the material. Medical practitioners have raised concerns, however, that in the event the biologic substrate material of the biotextiles is destroyed by the body, or resorbs too quickly (i.e., before the body self-repairs the injury for which the biotextile has been implanted), the wide voids/pores/interstices between stitch patterns in the extant reinforcing mesh may stretch open (FIG. 2), and allow body tissue to herniate through the stretched mesh cells, causing a potential serious condition in the patient. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to be able to prevent stretching and deformation of the pores of a sewn mesh, particularly for biotextiles.